"Enchanted:” The E! True Disneyworld Trip Report of a Birthday Princess (UPDATE 4/26)

[m!ssemmx0]

Love how you used dialogue to make it more exciting...can't wait for the next installment!
~Emily

 

[Enchanted]

Great start to your TR. Cant wait to read more!

Thanks! I don't work tomorrow afternoon so I should have time to post the next update after I get home from school.

Waiting on the next installment!

Check back tomorrow afternoon for the next update! Thanks for reading!

Glad you're back, we missed you!! Hope school is going well!

Hey, girlie! School's going okay. I love my on campus classes. It's a pain to have to get up early to get there, but I enjoy the coursework and my classmates are a lot of fun. I've still got a lot of homework though. I can’t wait to get caught up on your PTR and hear what all you’ve been up to!

Hooray! That was a total boost to my Monday!

Your family sounds so fun! It sounds like your Mom and Aunt C are being sneaky sneaky on this hotel thing...

That rocks that your Mom got off early! The only thing better than going to Disney, is going sooner to Disney yeah? I am hoping you did not really forget your pass! What a cliff hanger! Great first installment!

Glad to hear I made your Monday better, Tarah! I'm like Garfield: I hate Mondays.

Aren't my mom and aunt funny? And my brothers too. You'll hear more from them throughout the TR thanks to text messaging.

I was so psyched about getting to leave earlier, even if it meant just a few hours. I was soooooo ready to leave town. Mentally at least. Maybe not so much on the packing front.

Best believe I am here!

You're super cute btw!

Aw, thanks! Now you've got me blushing....

I'll be reading along too! Great start. I seriously hope you did not forget your AP.

Hello there! Glad to hear you’re enjoying it!

Woohooooo your first update! I was so excited to see it when I logged on!

I can't wait to hear more about CBR. It's a bummer that you didn't get to stay in a deluxe but in my mind, but I think CBR looks so beautiful and relaxing! Your TR can get me all prepped for our June stay there.

Forgetting my ticket is totally something I would do... eek, I hope it turned out alright!

When you were writing about your road trip, I could completely hear the Macarena version of the Tiki Room playing along in my head.

So looking forward to the next installment!!

Meg, you totally crack me up! Hahahahaha! I love that you remembered the Macarena Tiki Room! (Which we totally listened to at least five times just on the way to Aunt C’s!!!)

I just know you’re going to LOVE CBR, Meg. It’s so gorgeous there. Truly the next best thing to a deluxe.

Hmm, was your mom teasing you and you really did get to stay at a secret hotel....Or did you stay at CBR........stay tuned for the answer, right?

Can't wait to see the pictures of the BELLE merchandise!

Ooooh, the mystery...is it all just a mind game or is it reality? Haha, my TR has become the Matrix!

I think the Belle merchandise is from our second day at the parks. It's coming, I promise!

I can't wait to hear if you forgot your AP. Hurry up with next installment, please!

Haha, the next part should be up tomorrow afternoon after I get home from class.

 

[Enchanted]

You can't leave us hanging like that!

Where at in Oh do you live. I live in Ohio as well, but up at the top, I'm guessing you are more southern? I live West of Toledo.

Haha, sorry about the cliffhanger. I live in southern Ohio, around the Cincinnati area. I'm always happy to meet a fellow Buckeye!

I got all my cleaning done so I have time to read, update when you can!

The next update should be up tomorrow afternoon after I get home from school.

Emily, you are such a good writer!! I am so looking forward to your next installment. YAY for CBR!

OMG, I am the same way about packing. I check everything like a bazillion times..

I hope you remembered your Passporter!

Thanks, Rory! I’ve always loved writing stories, and it’s always nice to hear that people are enjoying them.

I just found your report. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun to read. I am so nervous about your ticket!

Welcome! Glad to hear you're enjoying it so far.

Oh my gosh!!! I am on the edge here waiting to see if you have your ticketPlease hurry back soon, eeekkkss!!!

Don't worry the next update will be up tomorrow afternoon! Hold on to that cliff a little longer!

i love your trip report, i really hope you didn't forget you AP. i'm a nightmare for packing i make a bazillion lists and then check everything off, then unpack to check i checked it off correctly!! as i leave the house i check money, passports tickets are in my bag then as soon as i'm in the car i check again just to make sure they haven't fallen out on the way from the front door to the car!! can't wait to read more adn see your photos xx

I do the same things! Especially the part about making sure that nothing falls out from the door to the car. I'm always terrified of that happening!

I can't wait to find out about the AP.

It's a doozy of a story, that's all I'll say....

You know how sometimes you start reading a trip report and you are REALLY interested and connecting with it????? Well that's yours for me. Unusual for me. Love your writing.

Wow, thanks! That's so sweet of you to say!

You've got me hooked! I'm ready to find out what happens with the forgotten AP.

Glad to hear you're liking it! The AP story is pretty funny actually.

I LOVE YOUR TR! Everyone else's TR is like a journal that is really fun to read and re-live their experiences. But yours is like a story and it's just so fun! Can't wait for more! And don't worry about my TR, I haven't had time to update it in FOREVER!

Aw, thanks, girl! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it!

Love how you used dialogue to make it more exciting...can't wait for the next installment!
~Emily

Thanks, fellow Emily. Check back tomorrow for more!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

Hi! Just thought I'd introduce myself. I just found your ptr and read that and now I'm on your TR. I love the way you write, it's amazing. I was pulled in from like the first few sententes. I def. think you will do wonderfully writing a children's book, or any book for that matter! Oh and by the way that's an awful way to end a post, I need to know, did you forget your AP!!!!!!!! I can't wait to read more! This TR is going to keep me incredibly interested when I should be doing other things (ya know like homework and papers for school, stuff like that!) Oh well, this is much more important!! hehe... Can't wait for the next installment!!!

 

[mrsksomeday]

OMG that is my nightmare, I am always so worried that I will forget our Annual Passes. I will be back here tomorrow to read what happened .

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

grr

I am anxious to find out as well!

 

[Corjack]

subbing!!! I am all in suspense and will be for a while....we are leaving tonite! Guess I will find out when i get back!!!

 

[Enchanted]

Hi! Just thought I'd introduce myself. I just found your ptr and read that and now I'm on your TR. I love the way you write, it's amazing. I was pulled in from like the first few sententes. I def. think you will do wonderfully writing a children's book, or any book for that matter! Oh and by the way that's an awful way to end a post, I need to know, did you forget your AP!!!!!!!! I can't wait to read more! This TR is going to keep me incredibly interested when I should be doing other things (ya know like homework and papers for school, stuff like that!) Oh well, this is much more important!! hehe... Can't wait for the next installment!!!

Hi there! Nice to meet you! Thanks for all the lovely compliments. You're very sweet. And I know what you mean about reading TRs instead of doing homework. That's definitely gotten me into trouble in the past.

OMG that is my nightmare, I am always so worried that I will forget our Annual Passes. I will be back here tomorrow to read what happened .

It was really terrible, like that nightmare where you show up to college in your underwear come to life. Luckily, you're about to find out how it turned out.

grr

I am anxious to find out as well!

You're in luck, the update is just seconds away! Glad you could join me, BTW!

subbing!!! I am all in suspense and will be for a while....we are leaving tonite! Guess I will find out when i get back!!!

Welcome! OMG, I'm so excited for you! Have a safe and magical trip!!!

 

[Enchanted]

Have you ever been punched in the stomach? Yeah, well, that’s what I felt like when I realized that I had indeed left my Annual Pass at home. Because although I said, “I think I might have forgotten mine…,” the truth was that I knew for certain that it was back home sitting on my dresser. You see, the night before I had done some last minute Target/Wal-Mart shopping while the rest of my family was at my brother’s ball game. I had already packed my Vera Bradley earlier that day with all of the stuff I would need in the parks: Shout! wipes, hand lotion, Advil, etc. Most importantly, I had put my AP in my wallet. I was totally ready to go!

But just before I left the house on my shopping trip, I took the AP out of my wallet and put it on my dresser because I was scared to death of it falling out of my wallet while I was shopping. I was trying to preempt the horrifying situation that I now found myself in. Talk about your self-fulfilling prophecies…that’s what I get for trying to be careful!

While I sat in shock, Mom and Aunt C were both totally freaking out.

“You’re joking!” Mom exclaimed. “Please tell me you’re joking!”

“Check your purse!” Aunt C was insisting on the other end of the phone. “Look again, maybe it’s there and you don’t know it!”

“How could you forget your PASSPORT?” Mom asked, her eyes practically bugging out of her head.

I checked my wallet just in case a miracle had occurred, but it wasn’t there. I told Mom and Aunt C the story about taking it out of my wallet, and they both let out sad, exasperated sighs.

“Yeah. I know,” I murmured. “But it’s okay. Worst case scenario, I have to buy a Park Hopper. That’s what credit cards are for, right?”

But then…it dawned on me. My last hope. The one thing that might save my life....

And I owe it all to an anonymous DISer somewhere.

You see, back when I was taking pictures for my PTR, I remembered that a DISer had recommended that you should always take a picture of the back of your tickets so that they can be replaced should you ever lose them or forget them at home. So while I was taking this picture for my PTR:

…I thought “What the heck?” and went ahead and flipped my AP over and took a pic of the back as well.

Now remember me telling you about the memory card that I rushed back into the house for at the last minute? Yep! You guessed it! That photo was on that memory card! So even though I was being a total ditz, God was totally looking out for me by making sure that I at least remembered the second memory card.

So let this be an important lesson to all of you out there: take a picture of the back of your ticket!!!! You never know when it will come in handy!!!

I quickly explained to Mom and Aunt C that I could just have my AP replaced when I got to Disney thanks to my picture, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Crisis averted!

Afterwards, once I’d hung up with Aunt C, Mom and I got a case of the giggles and just laughed ourselves silly over it. We called both my brothers and my dad to tell them all what happened, and they all pretty much had the same reaction:

The rest of the drive to Aunt C’s house was pretty uneventful, except for when this huge truck started to run a stop sign and almost hit us. His brakes made the loudest screeching noise I’ve ever heard! But other than that one occurrence, the drive was pretty peaceful.

Here are some pics from the drive to Aunt C’s house:

When we arrived at Aunt C’s house, she was still grabbing last minute stuff and throwing it in her suitcase, prompting Mom to note the similarities between Aunt C and a certain daughter of hers…. We all did some quick happy dancing and Aunt C oohed and aahed over my new Vera Bradley bag. Aunt C's husband, Uncle C, had taken her SUV for a quick oil change so we helped Aunt C finish packing while we waited.

When Uncle C got back, he loaded our luggage into Aunt C’s SUV while we were still inside. So when he came in, we were all like, “Okay time to load luggage!” and Uncle C just shook his head and said. “Got it all done except for Aunt C’s stuff.”

Uncle C is pretty handy to have around.

Just a few minutes later, we all said goodbye to Uncle C and Aunt C's dog and climbed into Aunt C's pretty white SUV.

"Let's get this show on the road!" Aunt C cried, punching her fist in the air as we pulled out of her driveway.

 

[Enchanted]

Mom sat in the backseat so that she could prop her legs up. She has issues with her ankles swelling really badly on car trips but propping them up seems to help a lot so I sat in the front with Aunt C so that Mom could have the backseat to herself. As such, I was dubbed Aunt C’s co-pilot. I was responsible for the music/radio, the GPS system, and handing Aunt C anything she needed out of her purse.

As the vehicle DJ, I put in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks for us to listen to. For the first couple of hours we just jammed to Pirates and enjoyed the scenery outside our windows. We timed it perfectly so that we were driving through the mountains during sunset.

Here are some pretty pictures of our drive as the sun started to set.

Look at all this smoke! Something was definitely on fire, but we never saw what it was.

I liked this picture of Chattanooga because of the way it captured the building in the rearview mirror, something I didn’t notice when I took the picture. Isn’t it cool?

After a while, I started to get bored and decided to get out my coloring book. I finished a picture of Alice and the Mad Hatter and Mad Hare. I really should have taken a picture of it, but I didn’t. So just imagine the prettiest coloring page you’ve ever seen!

After a couple of hours we stopped at Krystal to get something to eat for dinner. (For any confused northerners out there, Krystal is the southern version of White Castle burgers except that Krystal burgers have mustard on them while White Castles are plain. For the record, I’m a Krystal kind of girl. ) Once we were back on the road, I started messing around with the GPS. I’d never really used one before, and boy, was it fun!

I was able to make our destination CBR, and it gave us an estimation of when we would arrive at the hotel down to the minute. How cool is that? And then, I could play around and find locations along our route like hotels and restaurants and stuff. Jokingly, Aunt C suggested that I look up Krispy Kreme doughnuts for her (They’re her favorite.). So I look up Krispy Kreme, and it actually found all of the locations on our route that served Krispy Kreme. Again, SO. COOL.

Once it was dark, Mom fell asleep in the backseat, which was a shame because she missed passing through Atlanta. We love passing through Atlanta at night. All the lights are so pretty!

I also used this opportunity to experiment with the night settings on my camera (which are terrible BTW ) Here are some of the crazy pictures that resulted:

Another thing about Atlanta is that it features the carpool lane. Aunt C LOVES the car pool lane. I think it's her favorite part of the road trip. Just after we got out of Atlanta, though, we hit a wall of traffic. The left and middle lanes had come to a complete stop, but the far right lane was clear with people zooming by us like crazy. Aunt C and I couldn’t figure out if the path was really clear over there or if there was construction that was funneling those right lane people into the middle and left lanes because of a closed lane or what. Finally, we passed a stalled car in the middle lane that seemed to be the cause of the traffic jam. It was still weird that the left lane had come to a stop though when the car was in the middle. Who knows what was going on…

“This is what happens after the carpool lane ends,” Aunt C lamented sadly.

Soon after, Mom woke up and put Beauty and the Beast into the portable DVD player. We all sang along, and I quoted many of Belle’s lines as the movie progressed. When we stopped for gas, Mom and I traded places so that I could watch the movie and lay down in the back. I was getting pretty tired. My eyelids started to droop soon after Belle left the castle to save her father, and by the time Chip was saving them from their cellar, I had passed out completely.

When I reawakened, we would be facing our second crisis/problematic issue of the day…. Any guesses as to what it was? Hmmmmm?

 

[jenseib]

Great update. Stop ending with cliffhagers!

The thing with night settings on cameras is that is makes them have slow shutter speeds which means unless you are really really steady or have a tripod, you will get a blurry picture. I'm not even sure why they put them on cameras. Most people assume that it will help them get a better night picture, but without knowing much about the setting, you actually get a worse picture.

 

[m!ssemmx0]

Loved your latest update! And the pictures! The ones with the nightvision were really cool. I'm noticing a pattern here...you always leave us hanging! Now I HAVE to see the next one...

~Emily

 

[reelmom]

Joining in. I am enjoying your TR. Can't wait to hear what the next and hopefully the last crisis will be.

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

Loved the update! Those photos of Atlanta at night are awesome!! And good thing you took a photo of your AP! I swear, the DIS has helped me SO much. Can't wait for your next update!!

 

[BellesFavoriteBook]

2nd crisis.........All the hotels and motels everywhere had 'NO VACANCY' signs?

 

[Rora]

Great update!!

I can't believe you forgot your Passporter! Thank goodness you took those pictures for the PTR, you got super lucky! Note to all DISers: TAKE A PIC OF THE BACK OF YOUR TICKET!!!

Your pictures are gorgeous, even the night ones (so cool).

Can't wait for the next crisis update!!! Great job so far, Em!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

Ok you have to stop doing that. I can't take the stress. I need to know what happens!!!! What's the next crisis!!!!!

 

[shebaxric]

What cruel and unusual punishment for those of us that are hanging on your very words! I can't take the suspense. . . .

 

[autumnpalm]

Wooohooo an Emily update! The perfect thing to come home to. I am SO glad you took a picture of your AP. Score one for the DIS. The pictures you took on the drive are so pretty! We have a stopover in Atlanta on our way to Orlando so it was kind of neat to see you drove the same route!

Hmmm... did you guys get lost while you fell asleep? Please tell me your entire TR isn't going to be this stressful! But I sure am going to double check all my packing because of you.

Thanks for getting the updates done so quickly. It's so much fun to follow TRs when that happens. I am loving it so far!!

 

[chipper10]

Ok you have to stop doing that. I can't take the stress. I need to know what happens!!!! What's the next crisis!!!!!

Me too! I must know now!!!! Hurry and tell us what happened